Automatic hotel call-bell.



No. 653,459. Patented July lo,l |900.

G. B. REABEN. y

AUTOMATIC HOTEL cALL BELL. mnnlication med Nov. y1, 1899.) (No Model.)

3 Sheets-Sheet l.

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G. B. RE'ABEN.

AUTOMATIC HOTEL4 CALL BELL.

(Application led Nov. 1, 1899.) (No Model.) s sham-sheet 3.

UNITED STATES y PATENT A OlrrlcE GEORGE B. REABEN, OF SUMMIT, MISSISSIPPI, ASSIGNORTO VINCENT GRAY, OF NEWIORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

AUTOMATIC HOTEL CALL-BELL.

. SPECIFICATION forming part ef Letters Patent No.65a459, dated Jury 1o, 1900.

Application led November I, 1899. Serial No. 735,526. (No model.) l

To all whom it mag/concern;

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. REABEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Summit, in the county of Pike and State of Mississippi,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Hotel Call-Bells; andI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art towhich it appertains to make and use the same. Y

My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in hotel call-bells.

It has for its object to provide an automatic alarm through the medium of which 'a guest occupying any room in a hotel may be automatically called at any desired hour of lthe day or night and by means of which all of the guests of a hotel may be promptly notified in" case of lire or other impending danger.

In the present system for calling guests the guest leaves an order at the office as to the hour he may wish to be called, and this order,

together with the number ofhis room, is enteredupon a book or registerkept forrthaty purpose. The guest is then'awakeued ,or

called by an employee of the hotel or an alarmbell is caused to ring in the room, as the result of suitable mechanical or'electrical devices set in operation byA the clerk at the offlee of the hotel. This system involves of necessity the frailty of human memory or the negligence and carelessness of an employee, and it not infrequently happens from such causes that a guest is not called at the re` quired time, and consequently with these fac- Vtors of doubta guest is never quite at ease upon the question as to whether or not he will be promptly called.

My invention is designed to overcome allof the .objections recitedand to provide` 'a means which shall be absolutely automatic and precise in its operation.

With these ends in View my invention consists of a series of wires and alarm-bells connected with each room of a hotel .and con.-4

room may be sounded automatically any. `desired division of the hours by the travel'of" one or more hands moved by an ordinary Y clock mechanism, all as will be hereinafter `more fullyexplained. l y In order that those skilled in the art to whch my invention appertains may knowy how to make anduse my improved automatic hotel call-bell system,'I will proceed to deyscribe the construction and operationof the same and the manner of using it, referring drawings, in which y Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of my improved system or apparatus. g tical sectional view of the switchboard, taken on the line a' :c of Fig. 6. Fig. 3 is a "detail section of the clock-dial, showing the man ner in which the hand contacts to establish the ycircuit through the various switch-bars.

and to the rooms. Fig. 4e is a detail eleva-4 tion of one of the sundry switch-cords connecting the room-wires with the timeibars. 'Figi 5 is a perspective View of one of the. switch or time bars, and Fig. Gis a front elevation of the switchboard. l

Similar characters of reference indicatelike parts in the several iigures ot' the drawings.

Arepresents a switchboard or case inv which is mounted any suitable clock mechanism with a dial B and a single hand O, although an hour and minute hand may bothbe em, -ployed, and the dial B may be formed with the usual time divisions'and characters. The

vsingle hand O or the'hour-hand, as the "clase `may be, is provided with a suitable platinum2 point orteat to contact with a'seriesofim wardly-projecting radial metallic fingers D,

forty-eight in number and representing Athe quarter-hour subdivisions of thetwelve hours Each' of the fingers D is4 elec-` .on the'dial. trically, connected with a series of metallic l time-bars or sti wire rods E, corresponding in number with the quarter-hour subdivisions of the dial. These connections consist of wires F, extending from ea'ch'of the tingers and formed into a cable G, which passes through the face of the case A, and terminates in a series of flexible connections II, withl contact-hooks I,which are secured to the ends of the time-bars E by binding-screws J. The

Fig. 2 is a ver-py @by letters and numerals to the accompanying y IOO hand Gis placed in circuit by a wire J',which may or may not pass through a single-stroke bell K to the ordinary annunciator-battery L, the opposite pole of which connects with the ordinary system of room-Wires M, on which in each room is placed in circuit an alarmbell. (Not shown.)

The room return-wires M are each tapped by wires leading to posts N on the switchboard,which are numbered to correspond with the numbers of the room.

O represents flexible switch-cords, one end of which is connected with the posts Naud the opposite ends provided with spring-hooks P, adapted to contact and connect with the series of time bars or rods E, as shown in Fig. 6.

Each of the switch-cords passes through a pulley Q on a weight R, which is housed in a Vertical tube or casing S, and consequently when the hook P is released from the timebar the weight descends within its tube or casing S and the hook is raised up to the cord passage-way through the case A and out of the way, as shown at Fig. 6.

The time-bars are preferably arranged on an incline, as shown at Fig. 2, in order that the switch-cords O whenY connected with the lower bars will not touch those above the plane of connection.

On the face of the case A the subdivisions of time are indicated at the ends of the timebars E, as clearly shown at Fig. 6.

From the construction shown and described it will be seen that any one or more of the switch-cords O may be connected with any one of the time-bars and anynumber of guests awakened or alarmed at any one time or at various times. v

At Fig. 6 I have shown four switch-levers 1 2 3 4, which are designed to out in additional batteries when necessary to augment the battery-power of the ordinary annunciator-battery, and these additional batteries may be provided one for each iloor of the hotel.

The drawings illustrate my improved system adapted for a nine-room apartment, and I will now illustrate or describe its operation.

A guest in room 1 desires to be awakened at twelve oclock and a guest in room 6 desires to be awakened at quarter after four oclock. The switch-cord connecting roomwire of room 1 is drawn down and hooked onto the time-bar indicated bythe number 12 at the right-hand end, and the switchcord leading from room-wire of room 6 is drawn and hooked onto the time-bar marked 15, justbelow the mark or indicator 4. The wire-circuits to rooms 1 and 6 will then be established as follows: starting from the'hand C by the wire J', through the oflce-bell K to the annunciator-battery L, thence up the room-Wire to the alarm-bell in rooms 1 and 6, thence down the return-wires and through their connections to the posts 1 and 6 on the switchboard or case A, thence through the switch-cords O to the time-bars, with which the hooks Pare in connection, thence through said time bars to the connections H, and through the cable to the radial lingers opposite the time-divisions 12 and 4.15 on the dial. As the hand C travels in its circuit of time through the medium of the clock mechanism the point contacts with the radial arm 12, and as it continues its movement it subsequently contacts with the radial arm next after the one numbered 4, and at each contact it establishes a circuit from the hand C through the bell K, (which notifies the clerk that an alarm is being sounded,) and thence to the room of the guest, ringing the alarm, and back to the battery. When the bell K rings and the clerks attention has been attracted and the guest has arisen and pushed his 'call-button, the aununciator will indicate that the alarm has been effective, and he then releases the hook P from the time-bar and the weight R draws the hook up to its normal position. As soon as the hook has been removed from the time-bar the room in circuit with such time-bar is cut out and the alarmbell in said room ceases to ring.

It will be seen that in cases of danger, such as lire, all of the switch-cords may be con nected with any one or more of the time-bars E, and a general alarm may be sounded by moving the hand C by hand in an obvious manner. It' the guest should not awaken during the time the hand C is in contact with the radial finger of the dial, the hand may be returned to again make contact and establish the circuit, and if no response is then re ceived through the annunciator a messenger is sent to the room to see what the trouble may be. In practice I arrange the series of time-bars about a quarter of an inch in advance of each other progressively and find that such distance is sufficient to prevent the switch-cords from contacting with the timebars above the connections. Where a large number of rooms are required to be connected with the switchboard, the weight tubes or cases S may be arranged in a bank similar to ordinary organ-pipes.

Many changes may be made in the details of construction and in the system of wiringand battery service without departing from the spirit of myinvention, the gist of which consists in automatically sounding an alarm in any one or more rooms at any desired hour by establishinga circuit through the medium of clock mechanism, as hereinbefore explained.

What I claim las new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a device of the character described, a switchboard provided with a number of binding-posts, a series of switch-cords connected at one end to the binding-posts, engaging means on the other ends of the switch-cords, and a series of bars arranged on an incline and adapted to be engaged by the engaging means, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

IIG

f2. In a device of the character described, a

switchboard provided with a number of bind-v ing-posts, a series of switch-cords connected at one end to the binding-posts, metallic hooks on the other end of the switch-cords, a series of parallel bars arranged on an in oline and adapted to be engaged by the hooks, a timing contact device, and connections between the contacts of said device and the parallel bars, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a device of the character described, a switchboard provided with a number of binding-posts, flexible switch cords connected thereto at one end7 metallic hooks on theV other ends of the switch-cords, weights suspended by the switch-cords, a series of bars arranged on an incline and adapted to be engaged by the hooks, binding-screws mounted on the bars, a timing contact device, and connections between the contacts of said device stantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE l5. REABEN.

Witnesses:

N. CURTIS LAMMOND, D. G. STUART. 

